Alright, I, Duke Kenneth (previously "Apollo"), present this, Terrathan's Keep at the Mt. Parnassus Complex, as evidence of my skill and commitment to custom scening, and request membership in the Calradia Explorers Guild based on said skill and commitment.

All of these screenshots and more can be found on my public Steam profile here: Duke Kenneth's Public Screenshots (Everything older than March 1st is part of the map.)

(Keep in mind that when I made this map, I was "[PTK Strategos] Apollo" and PTK = "Plague of Terrathan's Keep)

This map includes a rp guildhall and working training grounds and was in use by PTK until their dissolution. This is the first scene I've ever created; it took the entirety of 4 snow days in Dallas to go from the first time opening Edit Mode to this map. As it was my first map, there is consequentially a large amount of features that I would change given what I know now. It was, however, a great learning process and remains a good concept piece. I hope you enjoy:

(If the shots are too large for your screen, view them here (again, everything after March 1st is part of the Mt. Parnassus Complex). Also, zooming out should render then visible as well (Ctrl+MouseWheel).

Deaf Blind Dave wrote:Looks awesome! Mind if we meet up so I can review it on a server? I am a bit busy today but we can do it sometime tomorrow, I will also add you to my steam later.

Thanks. Not sure how timing is going to work - may not really have time until late Monday night, but we can figure that out later. Additionally, I'm going to have to send you the .sco file and terrain codes so you can host it - where I am currently, the security is too tight to allow me to host a server.

Eidridin wrote:Sweet map! Got more?

My first was definitely my grandest so far. I've got a few others but nothing to this scale. (I am however currently working on a Capitol map for the campaign that dwarfs this one )

Cant wait to see it, I really like some of the small details in those shots like the little war room table with the flags. I will pm you my email now so you can send the files over, and when we meet on steam I will be glad to host the server.

Deaf Blind Dave wrote:Cant wait to see it, I really like some of the small details in those shots like the little war room table with the flags. I will pm you my email now so you can send the files over, and when we meet on steam I will be glad to host the server.

Hey there. Sorry you logged off before I could finish my mission last night. I did go through your map though, great job on your first map! There were some minor things you can improve on such as texture blending which I can show you. But otherwise it was a very nice scene. With that, I welcome you to the guild. You are now an associate. Congrats!

Deaf Blind Dave wrote:Hey there. Sorry you logged off before I could finish my mission last night. I did go through your map though, great job on your first map! There were some minor things you can improve on such as texture blending which I can show you. But otherwise it was a very nice scene. With that, I welcome you to the guild. You are now an associate. Congrats!

Thanks! and I would love it if you would share some tips with me - the entirety of what I know about scene-ing comes from trial and error. Hence, I don't know what the phrase "texture blending" means. Is that a method for compensating for the flashing and clipping that you get when two scenic props have shells too close to one another? or something else entirely?

Ok so in screenshot one, we see your texturing. Its very basic and has jagged edges like on the top of the stone where it meets the grass:

In the next screenshot, I took a turf and earth brush, set the size to about 5, and lowered the hardness and weight down to about .05. I then dabbed the edges all along the jagged area and broke up the monotony of the bottom of the hill as well as dabbing earth and path textures lightly here and there on the stone itself to break it up as seen here:

As a final touch, one which many mappers leave out, I take a colored brush and make it black. I then set the size to about 5 and lower the weight and hardness to about .1 then I dab the hill here and there and make slight color variations. You can do this with many colors if you wish, here is an example of how the final texture blending process looks. Compare to screenshot 1:

You could take this scene a step further and add a few rocks and trees and bushes as well. However I did not do that for the screenshots.

Oh one thing I forgot to mention too, is that your rocky terrain is smooth. I used a terrain tool brush and set it to "down" then set the weight and hardness to like .2 then I dabbed here and there, and then set it to up and did the same here and there to give the rock a more jagged appearance. You cant see it top town in the pics though.